***Official Texas Tech-Foster SOM (El Paso) Class of 2013 Thread***

[000777]

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[MeanGreenMD]

Hey Marvoloush! Did you join our super awesome group on facebook???😎 By the way, read this newsletter from the dean...

I’m excited to share that we have filled the charter class of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso. These 40 students, selected from over 2500 applicants, include 36 students from Texas who were highly ranked by the Admissions Committee, including nine from El Paso. Also highly ranked are four students from out-of-state. On February 1, 2009, the Texas Medical and Dental School Application Service publicly released the results of the student match with the TTUHSC Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. The first class will begin its medical studies on July 9, 2009.

These students’ undergraduate universities include Texas Tech, University of Texas (Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, Dallas, Arlington, Brownsville, Permian Basin), Sul Ross, the University of Houston, University of Michigan, Rensselaear, Princeton, Baylor, Emory, Rice, Johns Hopkins and Harvard.

Congratulations to our future students and kudos to the Admissions Committee, which did an outstanding job of selecting these candidates. And thank you to the generous donors in our region who have provided many in our charter class with scholarships.


Im excited! We have a real diverse and bright group coming from all over the country.👍

No love for Mean Green at the U of NT either.

 

[JT2009]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjv1bpoFZr2RQNtkZQJd_1OhdUPw

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — Thirteen people were murdered late Friday and Saturday in organized crime and drug-related violence in Mexico, including seven in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
In violence-stricken Ciudad Juarez, three unidentified men killed the security director of a physical therapy and sports center, said local justice spokeswoman Daniela Gonzalez.
The city has become Mexico's murder capital as drug cartels fight a turf war for control of the lucrative drug trade to the United States, the world's biggest cocaine consumer.
Two other men -- a security guard and a waiter -- were shot down in a bar by a group of unidentified attackers. Witnesses said an armed commando riddled with bullets two other young men, aged between 20 and 25, killing them with a final gunshot to the head.
The decapitated bodies of two unidentified women were found early Saturday in a vehicle in Mexico City, the local attorney's office told AFP.
"A neighbor notified police that a fetid odor was coming from a vehicle. When the trunk was opened, the corpses were found wrapped in a blanket on the back seat next to a cooler that contained the heads of the two female victims," a justice official said on condition of anonymity.
In January alone, 20 people were found beheaded in Mexico, the vast majority attributed to organized crime, out of a total of 463 homicides that month, according to media tallies.
Some 5,300 people were killed throughout Mexico in 2008, according to official figures, despite a government crackdown that saw the deployment of nearly 36,000 troops.
Most of the violence takes place close to the US border. Over 1,600 were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, which has already seen 250 victims this year.

 

[MinerMD2013]

Taken from http://www.statestats.com/cit07pop.htm
This is for 2009 WITH the consideration of the Juarez crimes.👍
CITIES OF 500,000 OR MORE POPULATION: (32 cities)
Safest 10:

1​

San Jose, CA

2​

Honolulu, HI

3​

El Paso, TX

4​

New York, NY

5​

Austin, TX

6​

San Diego, CA

7​

San Antonio, TX

8​

Louisville, KY

9​

Fort Worth, TX

10​

Jacksonville, FL


How about them apples?😀

Im telling you guys not to worry! Yes, Juarez is a dangerous city but it only stays deep in there. I go downtown at least 3 times a week and at night! The area where I like to listen to jazz and go to lounges is about 4 blocks from one of the bridges and NOTHING has happened and ever does happen. Just relax.😎

 

[Cujo]

Taken from http://www.statestats.com/cit07pop.htm
This is for 2009 WITH the consideration of the Juarez crimes.👍
CITIES OF 500,000 OR MORE POPULATION: (32 cities)
Safest 10:

1​

San Jose, CA

2​

Honolulu, HI

3​

El Paso, TX

4​

New York, NY

5​

Austin, TX

6​

San Diego, CA

7​

San Antonio, TX

8​

Louisville, KY

9​

Fort Worth, TX

10​

Jacksonville, FL


How about them apples?😀

Im telling you guys not to worry! Yes, Juarez is a dangerous city but it only stays deep in there. I go downtown at least 3 times a week and at night! The area where I like to listen to jazz and go to lounges is about 4 blocks from one of the bridges and NOTHING has happened and ever does happen. Just relax.😎

What kind of whacked out ranking is this? New York City ranks 4th, right behind El Paso? I don't think anybody will consider NY as one of the safest large cities, which pretty much adds context to El Paso's ranking.

These rankings carry about as much weight as US News And World Reports rankings of med schools.

How bout THEM APPLES?

 

[marvolush]

ok so a few might think i'm ignorant but i'm personally not too worried about the proximity to Juarez. i hear Baltimore, MD is not the safest place in the world either, yet that's where Hopkins is. every city has its crimes. the news is always going to report about people getting shanked and what not and the reality is that it does happen (even ships out in the middle of the freaking ocean get attacked by pirates!). but the other part of reality is that there are many people born and raised in El Paso without running into any trouble. Juarez or no Juarez, crime or no crime, life goes on. just carry pepper spray, a tazer and a knife around and you'll be good 😛....jk (not kidding about the pepper spray though ladies 🙂). and plus we have the lovely Fort Bliss to protect us 😉 at the end of the day it's all about becoming a doctor and if it's becoming a doctor in as bad as a city as some think it is, then, hey, at least we'll see the interesting cases. and if you're personally worried about El Paso getting held hostage by Juarez, then you can choose not to go and it'll be fine and dandy with everyone else.

 

[MinerMD2013]

ok so a few might think i'm ignorant but i'm personally not too worried about the proximity to Juarez. i hear Baltimore, MD is not the safest place in the world either, yet that's where Hopkins is. every city has its crimes. the news is always going to report about people getting shanked and what not and the reality is that it does happen (even ships out in the middle of the freaking ocean get attacked by pirates!). but the other part of reality is that there are many people born and raised in El Paso without running into any trouble. Juarez or no Juarez, crime or no crime, life goes on. just carry pepper spray, a tazer and a knife around and you'll be good 😛....jk (not kidding about the pepper spray though ladies 🙂). and plus we have the lovely Fort Bliss to protect us 😉 at the end of the day it's all about becoming a doctor and if it's becoming a doctor in as bad as a city as some think it is, then, hey, at least we'll see the interesting cases. and if you're personally worried about El Paso getting held hostage by Juarez, then you can choose not to go and it'll be fine and dandy with everyone else.

I agree Marvolush!! By the way I can personally comment on Hopkins. I spent two summers there as a Howard Hughes fellow. I lived in the dorms but 2 blocks from where I lived there was a corner where prostitutes would hang out every night, no joke! Plus, there are frequent muggings in the area. I can definitely promise this, El Paso is much safer than San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and especially Houston! Ft. Bliss is right there which will immediately intervene.

Most importantly, if you are so strung out on being in a "safe" area, than you will miss out on many, many great hospitals that are in the worst areas helping the most vulnerable of our populations, such as Thomason Hospital. Here's a list of my top 4 city hospitals that happen to be in HORRIBLE places: Kings County in Brooklyn, Cook County in Chicago, Bellevue in NYC, and L.A. General.

Like Marvolush said, at the end of the day it's about being a doctor. I hope that I will be able to travel into really dangerous and helpless areas to give my time and skills to help better other peoples lives. Isnt that why we are all going into medicine in the first place?

Lastly, also quoting Marvolush, if you're so worried about this town than just dont come and decline the offer.

Ive NEVER had a single problem and I go out a lot! Especially since I have the year off. Those of you coming here will see how nice everyone is and how easy going people are.

Last note (not mentioning who) If you're not going to attend Foster please stick to your own posts. Im sure that there are plenty of concerns that you need to address and discuss regarding your own schools. If you know who I am talking about please continue to ignore that person.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I agree Marvolush!! By the way I can personally comment on Hopkins. I spent two summers there as a Howard Hughes fellow. I lived in the dorms but 2 blocks from where I lived there was a corner where prostitutes would hang out every night, no joke! Plus, there are frequent muggings in the area. I can definitely promise this, El Paso is much safer than San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and especially Houston! Ft. Bliss is right there which will immediately intervene.

Most importantly, if you are so strung out on being in a "safe" area, than you will miss out on many, many great hospitals that are in the worst areas helping the most vulnerable of our populations, such as Thomason Hospital. Here's a list of my top 4 city hospitals that happen to be in HORRIBLE places: Kings County in Brooklyn, Cook County in Chicago, Bellevue in NYC, and L.A. General.

Like Marvolush said, at the end of the day it's about being a doctor. I hope that I will be able to travel into really dangerous and helpless areas to give my time and skills to help better other peoples lives. Isnt that why we are all going into medicine in the first place?

Lastly, also quoting Marvolush, if you're so worried about this town than just dont come and decline the offer.

Ive NEVER had a single problem and I go out a lot! Especially since I have the year off. Those of you coming here will see how nice everyone is and how easy going people are.

Last note (not mentioning who) If you're not going to attend Foster please stick to your own posts. Im sure that there are plenty of concerns that you need to address and discuss regarding your own schools. If you know who I am talking about please continue to ignore that person.

You are quite right. You guys have no idea how often residency directors bring up Thomason Hospital in interviews. You guys will see more pathology than almost anyone else in the nation. Research gets plenty of funding because of the lack of studies on Hispanics. Faculty can take almost any current study.....copy it while adding Hispanic to the title.....published.

While I am a little too scared to go into Juarez (I'm whiter than a cotton tailed rabbit), tons of our residents still go into Juarez for fun! As far as safety, I have not sniffed a problem with any medical students yet......with the exception of the inpatient psych ward (not reflective of El Paso obviously). Some of my classmates drive $35,000+ vehicles and park at Thomason and surrounding area without a problem.

 

[MrBlonde]

Yeah I have to chime in, I have no axe to grind (unlike some people here it seems) or favors to pay (I'm not going to go there for med school) so I hope this may help allay those with lingering doubts about El Paso. I grew in El Paso and went to college there (I'm doing a research fellowship elsewhere) and have to say that El Paso and Juarez might be but a few steps apart, distance-wise, they are a world of difference apart in every other conceivable facet of life. Mexico is a third-world country, with plenty problems, but what many people (especially the people who have never lived in El Paso 👎) don't know is that those problems really do stay on that side of the border. The people warring are not stupid people (street smarts-wise) they know that if anything slips to the other side of the border, they will have to deal with the sledgehammer known as the US government, it behooves them to keep it in Juarez. Really all that is being made is very much ado... or chicken little... you get the picture.

Furthermore, I would have to say that El Paso is truly safe city in its own right. It is moderately sized city so it doesn't have the crime "pitfalls" that come from living in a big city (I'm doing research in big city now had my car broken into twice😡). Even the economically-depressed areas that I know most of the new med students will avoid like the plague, (like the lower valley, central, northeast) are full people just trying to make a decent life for themselves and to the chagrin of some people, have very little crime. I'm not sure if MinerMD feels the same but all this attention paid for the apparent lack of safety in El Paso is the pinnacle of absurdity.

One last point, I have say to that I envy the students going to Foster this coming year. It still shocks me the level of rudeness I experience as I travel to other parts of the country, "shockness", I now attribute to being spoiled by my time in El Paso. I truly realize that the people from there are just the most generous, warm, accepting and down-to-earth people I had the privilege of meeting. Good Luck guys and try the Mexican food while your there it is the best in the country!

 

[d1ony5u5]

Congratulations to all on your acceptances!
I'm not as lucky as you (yet) to have a medschool acceptance in hand. I imagine it feels awesome.

I'm researching schools to apply to next cycle, and Foster sounds interesting. However, I had a couple of questions that maybe you guys could answer/help me find out through your conversations with administration and faculty:

Is the school planning to increase its capacity for the 2014 class?
Are they going to keep the OOS:IS ratio in that class the same as for your class (I'm OOS, and statistically it doesn't look too good...)?

Thanks, and have fun in medschool!!

 

[marvolush]

thanks for the contribution about El Paso, MinerMD2013, TexasPhysician and MrBlonde!

d1ony5u5 - okay so what i'm going to tell you are things i've heard here and there, but i'm not sure if it is 100% true. anybody please correct me if i'm wrong!

the school is definitely going to expand their class size. they're starting out with 40 this year, 60 next year and 100 the year after that (i think i have the numbers right). i'm not sure what the cut off will be but their facilities can accomodate a good amount of students for sure.

i think every Texas school reserves 10% of its slots for OOS. you never know how you'll do until you try! there are many many surprises during this whole application process.

remember that Texas has its own application (TMDSAS - http://www.tmdsas.com) and it is a bit tedious to fill out. personally, i found that filling out the TMDSAS first made AMCAS and AACOMAS much easier and quicker to fill out.

if you have anymore questions, just ask away! i hope i've helped. best of luck! don't give up! 👍

 

[TexasPhysician]

thanks for the contribution about El Paso, MinerMD2013, TexasPhysician and MrBlonde!

d1ony5u5 - okay so what i'm going to tell you are things i've heard here and there, but i'm not sure if it is 100% true. anybody please correct me if i'm wrong!

the school is definitely going to expand their class size. they're starting out with 40 this year, 60 next year and 100 the year after that (i think i have the numbers right). i'm not sure what the cut off will be but their facilities can accomodate a good amount of students for sure.

i think every Texas school reserves 10% of its slots for OOS. you never know how you'll do until you try! there are many many surprises during this whole application process.

remember that Texas has its own application (TMDSAS - http://www.tmdsas.com) and it is a bit tedious to fill out. personally, i found that filling out the TMDSAS first made AMCAS and AACOMAS much easier and quicker to fill out.

if you have anymore questions, just ask away! i hope i've helped. best of luck! don't give up! 👍

I think you've got it mostly right. I've heard 60 next year too and 80-100 the year after. I think they are hoping for 100, but I'm not sure they will jump so quickly.

From what I recall though:
Texas schools don't reserve 10% of their class for OOS. They can't accept more than 10% OOS or they lose their funding. Baylor is exempt from this rule and has a 30% max. Some schools come close to 10% and others don't come close.

 

[MinerMD2013]

Yeah I have to chime in, I have no axe to grind (unlike some people here it seems) or favors to pay (I'm not going to go there for med school) so I hope this may help allay those with lingering doubts about El Paso. I grew in El Paso and went to college there (I'm doing a research fellowship elsewhere) and have to say that El Paso and Juarez might be but a few steps apart, distance-wise, they are a world of difference apart in every other conceivable facet of life. Mexico is a third-world country, with plenty problems, but what many people (especially the people who have never lived in El Paso 👎) don't know is that those problems really do stay on that side of the border. The people warring are not stupid people (street smarts-wise) they know that if anything slips to the other side of the border, they will have to deal with the sledgehammer known as the US government, it behooves them to keep it in Juarez. Really all that is being made is very much ado... or chicken little... you get the picture.

Furthermore, I would have to say that El Paso is truly safe city in its own right. It is moderately sized city so it doesn't have the crime "pitfalls" that come from living in a big city (I'm doing research in big city now had my car broken into twice😡). Even the economically-depressed areas that I know most of the new med students will avoid like the plague, (like the lower valley, central, northeast) are full people just trying to make a decent life for themselves and to the chagrin of some people, have very little crime. I'm not sure if MinerMD feels the same but all this attention paid for the apparent lack of safety in El Paso is the pinnacle of absurdity.

One last point, I have say to that I envy the students going to Foster this coming year. It still shocks me the level of rudeness I experience as I travel to other parts of the country, "shockness", I now attribute to being spoiled by my time in El Paso. I truly realize that the people from there are just the most generous, warm, accepting and down-to-earth people I had the privilege of meeting. Good Luck guys and try the Mexican food while your there it is the best in the country!

Very well put MrBlonde. I really agree that all the attention being put on the issue is ridiculous. Im sure everyone wants to place in a great residency program like one at Cook County, Hopkins, TMC, etc. BUT GUESS WHAT?! They are all in horrible areas full of crime. If you cant handle it than go work a desk job at Inatech

 

[marvolush]

heeey TMC isn't that bad 😛 although we do get e-mails about people being robbed and assaulted every few weeks...ooohhh Houston...what can i say... but yes i do get your point and so should everybody else 😉

TexasPhysician - firstly thanks for all the great info you've given us 🙂 so i must ask you the typical pre-med question: how much free time do you have in med school (primarily 1st and 2nd year)? do you get to go out, kick back and relax at least once a week? any time for working out during the week? or is it constantly ripping your hair out and crying yourself to sleep in a fetal position (maybe not to that extent) all the time? i must say that this senioritis is hitting me really badly in my last semester and i'm worried about having it roll over once med school starts 🙁 so any words of wisdom for us newbies?

 

[TexasPhysician]

Free time really depends on the block/rotation you are on. I didn't do much outside of school during the anatomy block (first block) until I realized what was expected of me. Once you figure out what works for you and how much time you need to dedicate, everything gets easier. Third year has been great with the exception of surgery. I had 2 weeks in surgery with 100+ hours in the hospital/OR. They since changed surgery to have night float (no call) right after my block ended. Otherwise, I average 2x/week in the gym. Even in third year you will have time to have fun. In a couple weeks, I am going to Las Vegas for the second time during third year.

My roommate even has a part-time job during third year.

A friend of mine at another med school started his own company during medical school.

There is definitely time for fun.

 

[000777]

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[MinerMD2013]

Check out another great opportunity coming to Foster soon. 😀

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11786922

 

[TexasPhysician]

Check out another great opportunity coming to Foster soon. 😀

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11786922

For the record, the sports medicine fellowship they mention is a lot farther along than they lead on. The director of the fellowship has been hired, the program has been approved for a fellowship, they are already planning when to accept their first student(s), and the new building for it is almost complete. They began adding walls to the frame approximately 2 months ago.

 

[Icecold]

U.S. rattled as Mexico drug war bleeds over border

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Hit men dressed in fake police tactical gear burst into a home in Phoenix, rake it with gunfire and execute a man.

Armed kidnappers snatch victims from cars and even a local shopping mall across the Phoenix valley for ransom, turning the sun-baked city into the "kidnap capital" of the United States.

Violence of this kind is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily feature of a raging drug war that claimed 6,000 lives south of the border last year.

But U.S. authorities now fear that violent crime is beginning to bleed over the porous Mexico border and take hold here.
"The fight in Mexico is about domination of the smuggling corridors and those corridors don't stop at the border," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Execution style murders, violent home invasions, and a spiraling kidnap rate in Phoenix -- where police reported an average of one abduction a day last year linked to Mexican crime -- are not the only examples along the border.

In southern California, police have investigated cases of Americans abducted by armed groups tied to the Tijuana drug trade. One involved a businesswoman and her teenage daughter snatched in San Diego last year and held to ransom south of the border.

In south Texas, a live hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel stash was tossed onto the pool table of a bar frequented by off-duty police officers in January. The pin was left in it and the assailant fled.


COPING WITH SPILLOVER

Mexican traffickers have always been violent, but the death toll has soared since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and sent tens of thousands of troops to fight the country's powerful cocaine cartels.

Soldiers have fought pitched battles with drug gangs in several Mexican towns and overwhelmed police officers have fled municipal forces the length of the border. In many cases, police officers have been paid off by the drug gangs or even joined them.

In a sign of an increasingly desperate struggle to rein in the violence, Calderon this week ordered 5,000 more troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The cartels have killed 250 people in Ciudad Juarez in the past month, forced the police chief to resign, and shut down the airport with bomb threats.

The struggle by outgunned Mexican authorities to contain the violence was highlighted for Arizona state police last November, when Mexican police officers pinned down in a raging gun battle in Nogales, Sonora, reached out to them with an urgent request for more bullets.

While U.S. authorities stress they have not seen anything like the kind of street battles and horrific beheadings that are now common in Mexico, they are already taking action to curb was has become known as "overspill".

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he wants 1,000 troops to guard the border. The state's Attorney General Greg Abbott is backing legislation to crack down on money laundering and human, drug and weapons trafficking through the state by the warring Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

Lawmakers in Arizona heard testimony on border violence last week from police and prosecutors, who are seeking more robust measures to seize smugglers' assets, as well as cracking down harder on gunrunning to Mexico.


PLANNING FOR THE WORST

Washington has stepped up support for Calderon, pledging to give Mexico helicopters, surveillance aircraft, inspection equipment and police training under a $1.4 billion plan to beat the cartels in Mexico and Central America.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- a former Arizona governor -- told a Congressional hearing last week she was focused on curbing the southbound traffic in guns that are being used to arm the violent cartels.

In a measure of that commitment, a Phoenix gun dealer goes on trial next week on charges he sold hundreds of weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, to smugglers knowing they would send them to a powerful cartel in Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast.

As the spiraling drug violence shakes Mexican cities and towns along the U.S. border, U.S. Senate lawmakers announced last week they would hold two hearings to assess the ability of U.S. security forces to deal with the rise in crime on the U.S. side.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the homeland security governmental affairs committee, said the panel would assess border security programs already in place and review whether federal, state and local authorities are ready to respond to any serious spillover of the Mexican drugs war.

For the sheriff of Hidalgo County, in south Texas, where the live grenade was thrown into a bar in Pharr, possibly by street gang members armed by a Mexican cartel, that renewed attention to the war on his doorstep can only be welcome.

"It's the first time we've had a hand grenade attack," Guadalupe Trevino told Reuters. "I believe there's more out there that we need to find."
(Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Dallas and Randall Mikkelsen in Washington; Editing by Kieran Murray)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090301/ts_nm/us_usa_mexico_drugs

 

[zolaash]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/06/mexico.troops/index.html

 

[Seer5001]

Hey guys,

I'd just like to say hello to all my future classmates and try to get a discussion going again. It seems like this thread is dominated by a "El paso is going to burn because of its proximity to Mexico" posts, the subtext of which is almost certainly "my medical school is better than yours."

The two issues seem to be its youth and the current Mexican drug war. As for youth, people raised, literally, the exact same questions with A&M's initial class during the late 1970's (A&M is the next youngest medical school in texas). Is it going to survive? Will the funding continue? My parents are good friends with one of their initial class members, which had a size of 37 or 38, similar to Foster now, and A&M is currently going strong.

As for the drug war, I'll admit that the situation is bleak in Mexico, especially in the broader context of the worldwide recession. On the other hand, given how the violence is killing tourism, representing almost 10% of Mexico's GDP, the war will die down eventually. And come on, admit it, you guys want to be able to vacation again in Cancun as well. In the meantime, us kids in El Paso will just have to settle with the excellent pathology and trauma cases that will be streaming across the border. I can't think of a better place to train cool headed, bilingual and culturally adept doctors.

Anyways, have you guys received your class packets yet? What do you think about the requirement of a PDA (ipaq 110)? I have working friends that have PDA's and never use them. In my opinion laptops are infinitely more useful.

 

[marvolush]

Hey guys,

I'd just like to say hello to all my future classmates and try to get a discussion going again. It seems like this thread is dominated by a "El paso is going to burn because of its proximity to Mexico" posts, the subtext of which is almost certainly "my medical school is better than yours."

The two issues seem to be its youth and the current Mexican drug war. As for youth, people raised, literally, the exact same questions with A&M's initial class during the late 1970's (A&M is the next youngest medical school in texas). Is it going to survive? Will the funding continue? My parents are good friends with one of their initial class members, which had a size of 37 or 38, similar to Foster now, and A&M is currently going strong.

As for the drug war, I'll admit that the situation is bleak in Mexico, especially in the broader context of the worldwide recession. On the other hand, given how the violence is killing tourism, representing almost 10% of Mexico's GDP, the war will die down eventually. And come on, admit it, you guys want to be able to vacation again in Cancun as well. In the meantime, us kids in El Paso will just have to settle with the excellent pathology and trauma cases that will be streaming across the border. I can't think of a better place to train cool headed, bilingual and culturally adept doctors.

Anyways, have you guys received your class packets yet? What do you think about the requirement of a PDA (ipaq 110)? I have working friends that have PDA's and never use them. In my opinion laptops are infinitely more useful.

hi Seer5001! welcome to SDN and welcome to our class! can't wait to meet you! i think most of us have migrated to Facebook. so this thread is quiet. if you have Facebook, just search Texas Tech El Paso and you should see our group.

anyway, i've received my packet and i did see the PDA requirement. since TT-El Paso is a new school and they seem more technologically advanced, perhaps we'll put the PDA to better use than other med schools. i think PDAs are convenient, although i've never owned one (so my word isn't all that great). the $200-300 stamp on it is a bit of a turn off on top of the $1600 loaner laptop. i just hope we get our money's worth.

 

[singori]

Hello guys,

I just received the informational package from Foster. Do any of you know if the $1600 computer fee will be paid by the scholarship? What do you think of this fee? I have never spent so much money for a laptop and this one is not even going to be ours to keep 🙁 Hopefully it is worth it!

 

[jbaile20]

I'm currently in the military working as an RN and I'll be attending TT-EP in July. I work w/ a resident that did yrs 3 & 4 in EP. He said we would get great experience there as a med students. He was doing procedures and was exposed to a lot that other schools cannot offer d/t lack of patient population. Don't worry, we'll get a great education.

 

[krismichelle]

I just got in off the waitlist today!!! So excited to be joining you guys!!!

 

[MeanGreenMD]

I just got in off the waitlist today!!! So excited to be joining you guys!!!

Welcome krismichelle,

I know that we were all rooting for you to get in somewhere. My girlfriend flipped out when I told her. I think she gets more emotionally involved in this stuff than I do. We have a Foster Facebook group, in case you haven't found it yet. Congratulations and I can't wait for classes to start.


May 1, only a couple more months.

YAY!!!!

 

[krismichelle]

Welcome krismichelle,

I know that we were all rooting for you to get in somewhere. My girlfriend flipped out when I told her. I think she gets more emotionally involved in this stuff than I do. We have a Foster Facebook group, in case you haven't found it yet. Congratulations and I can't wait for classes to start.


May 1, only a couple more months.

YAY!!!!

Thank you! It was an amazing feeling and I too am ready to start! I did find the FB group too. 🙂

 

[holiday ham]

Hi, I am a female incoming intern who is doing a transitional year at el paso and was wondering if anyone wanted a roommate and we could split a 2bed/2bath condo. Let me know if you are looking for a roommate. I would prefer a female.

 

[krismichelle]

Hi, I am a female incoming intern who is doing a transitional year at el paso and was wondering if anyone wanted a roommate and we could split a 2bed/2bath condo. Let me know if you are looking for a roommate. I would prefer a female.

You might have more luck if you post your question on the Facebook group page. I think that's where most have migrated to.